


i don't know a thing, but neither do you

by xviichapters



Category: PRISTIN (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Childhood, Childhood Friends, F/M, Kid Fic, Soulmates, they are children in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26299558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xviichapters/pseuds/xviichapters
Summary: Joshua has a bike that goes fast, two annoying friends, and a chance encounter with a crying girl.
Relationships: Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Yoon Jeonghan, Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Im Nayoung
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9





	i don't know a thing, but neither do you

Joshua has a bike.

Its shiny and red, with silver streaks along the sides and its one of those lightweight kinds with the wheels barely visible. And guess what? No training wheels! His dad said these kinds don’t ever come with training wheels, so he worked super hard over the summer, dragging his mother out almost every day to practice with loose wheels, then one wheel, then finally none at all.

And now he’s going _fast._

He’s zooming through the streets, over creaky bridges, criss-crossing tight-lined trees, across sandy deserts and up mountains, past valleys, and nothing can stop him now – except for the one-kilometre radius around their house that his mother has set, of course. In her words, specifically, “Don’t you _dare_ go past the highway Joshua Jisoo Hong or you will never see your precious bike ever again!”

Still, one kilometre is pretty far, especially for a nine-year-old. He could cycle past the elementary school, the big grocery store, and even the basketball court the older kids hang out at. Plenty of backroads to explore, plenty of long ways home.

Joshua is fine.

Joshua is _lost._

He really should’ve expected this. His family had just moved into the area right before summer started, and though it wasn’t much different from the same sleepy suburban layout of his old neighbourhood, there were a lot of things here that weren’t in the previous town before.

One (or two) of them being the overly cheerly, overly friendly faces of Choi Seungcheol and Yoon Jeonghan.

It really isn’t because he’s shy. It isn’t because he’s aloof or finds it hard to make friends either. It's just that both Seungcheol and Jeonghan would much rather dribble balls across the basketball court and make bad shots at the too-tall hoop (aim becoming ever accurate with each passing day, however), while Joshua is more of a one-man-band kind of person; the sound of his breathing, feet on the peddles, going, going, _going,_ and they can’t blame him if he zooms past them without a backward glance when they call out a little too late.

(He’s tried explaining how he never sees the sidewalk when he’s cycling, edges blurring into wonderful colour with only one spot on the horizon in focus.

“You’re weird, you know that?” Seungcheol said, splitting the popsicle in half and handing the other to him.

Jeonghan laughed, shaking Seungcheol’s arm. “You’re no better.”

He fixed Joshua with a serious look. “Seungcheol keeps his basketball trading cards in a bag in the freezer because he’s scared sunlight and humidity will ruin the colour.”

Joshua felt his face contort into a grimace. “That’s weird, Seungcheol.”

“Shut up.”)

And it is because of this tunnel vision – the loss of practically all senses except sight and sound – that Joshua only hears it _after_ passing the source of the sniffling.

He brakes immediately, a good five metres from the figure huddled by the side of the road. He can’t see them too well, hidden under brush and 6 o’clock shadows, but it is clearly a girl and the girl is crying.

He contemplates cycling away, maybe asking his mother for help, but the girl sobs even louder, and he can’t _not_ check up on her now.

There’s a curtain of hair hiding her face as he approaches, and she’s got her legs curled up to her chest, arms wrapped tight around them. She doesn’t look up at him but it’s clear what has happened here.

One knee is scraped up and bruised, dried blood crusting around the edges and there’s cuts along her palms and elbows.

“How did you fall?” he asks because she couldn’t have gotten hurt any other way.

Her sniffles soften to a whimper, but she doesn’t lift her head. Joshua thought she looks very much like a wounded animal, so he decides to treat her as such, and pushes his bike very slowly onto the sidewalk, sitting down gently beside her.

“My name’s Joshua,” he says, when he’s sure the girl is alright with his presence. “I live a little further down from here, but I could bring to my mum and she’ll fix you right up if you want.”

Joshua’s very glad now that he’s had practice carrying a backseat rider on his bike after weeks of Jeonghan pestering him to fix one on so he can get free rides to the grocery store.

(“You’re just too lazy to cycle there yourself Han,” Seungcheol scolded, partially miffed that he had to carry the ball _and_ their bottles now since Jeonghan wasn’t yet steady enough to ride pillion with no hands.

“What about you? You make Joshua bike you to the court every day! Just cause you’re neighbours,” Jeonghan huffed, indignant.

Joshua interrupted before a full-blown argument could break out. “Be quiet or I’m not giving rides to _anybody._ ”

They stayed silent after that.)

It takes a few minutes of quiet before the girl decides to speak up.

“My name’s Nayoung,” she says, and it's soft like she’s afraid. “I… Fell trying to balance on the ledge.”

She means the bump that raises the pavement from the road. Joshua isn’t sure _how_ someone could fall off the sidewalk and hurt themselves so badly, but he decides not to question it and address the matter at hand instead.

“Do you know where your house is?”

She points a little to the right, and he deduces her house is probably nearby.

“Can you walk?”

She shakes her head profusely. “My ankle… hurts.”

Now there’s a problem. “If you can balance on my bike, I could cycle you home?”

Again, she shakes her head but now there are fresh tears gathering in her eyes.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Does it hurt that badly?”

“N-no…” she dives right back behind tucked knees. “I’m… s-scared.”

“Scared of what?” Joshua asks, perplexed.

“I’m scared my mummy will scold me!” she blurts out. “She told me not to play near the road and I did and I fell and now she’ll be angry!”

Joshua’s eyes soften. He can understand that. Sometimes he gets terrified when he realizes he doesn’t exactly know what “one kilometre” means. (One kilometre to the right means “Don’t go past the expressway!” but where does one kilometre to the left stop? He doesn’t know, but he doesn’t intend to ask either.)

“I think your mom will be more worried if you’re not home before dark.” The girl looks up abruptly then, to the orange sky that’s turning purple, and she knows that Joshua is right.

“Come on,” Joshua says, putting out a hand, “I’ll help you.”

It takes some time, but Nayoung takes it eventually, reluctantly pulling herself onto the backseat.

Nayoung is lighter than Jeonghan, but so much less stable and it takes a longer time than he expected to get Nayoung home and then cycle back himself.

Her parents had wrenched the door open at the first knock, angry and worried at the same time, but the look on their faces changed once they took a good look at him. He didn’t really have much time to think about it; not when Nayoung’s father was quickly relieving him of her weight (thank goodness, his arm was getting sore holding her up) and Nayoung’s mother was pushing a bar of chocolate into his hands. There was a short note attached to it, and the woman’s voice was warm when she said, _“Please, won’t you give this paper to your parents?”_

When he gets home, his parents are obviously angry, but it disappears almost immediately only to be replaced with a look of shock. Joshua isn’t sure why the adults are all acting weird today. He holds out the paper he was given before they can ask anything.

“I helped out a girl who hurt her leg today, and her parents asked me to give you this.”

Then he skips to his bedroom with his new bar of chocolate without another word.

It isn’t under the next day, when he pays a rare voluntary visit to the basketball court to see Seungcheol and Jeonghan, that he gets it.

“Hey!” Jeonghan says, bounding over to him, “Cheol look! He got his numbers too!”

“What numbers?”

“Your soulmate numbers!”

Joshua can’t be stopped after that. He drags them to the nearest reflective object he can find – which happened to be one of those weird, round mirrors that made your nose look bigger than it actually is – and finds a string of numbers hovering over his head.

12-18-1995.

It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that he has no idea what they mean.

“What does it mean?” he asks his friends instead. They should know; they have numbers over their heads too.

Jeonghan rolls his eyes.

“That’s your soulmate’s birthdate silly!” He pulls Seungcheol close and jabs a finger at the numbers. “See? 10-04-1995. October 4th 1995. That’s my birth date! Seungcheol’s _my_ soulmate.”

Seungcheol colours and it’s _Joshua’s_ turn to roll his eyes.

Seungcheol always reacts like that, no matter how many times Jeonghan declares their relationship with each other. (And he says it _a lot._ Joshua would know. It’s not like there is a line of people willing to hang out with the disgustingly in-love pair, even if none of them really know what being “in-love” actually means. In fact, Joshua’s quite sure he is the _only_ kid their age who can stand being around the two of them and their obnoxious need to do everything together _, all the time.)_

“So you’re telling me I’ve met my soulmate?”

“That’s what it usually means when you get your numbers, yes.”

“Hey. You don’t have to sound so smart about it,” Joshua can’t help but retort.

“Wha-!” Jeonghan fumbles, surprised. “Seungcheol! Joshua’s being mean to me?”

“Why do you sound like you’re asking question?” Seungcheol replies instead.

“It is a question! One of the few times he hangs out with us without needing to _be dragged_ and he insults me?”

“Not that hard, Hannie.”

They continue on bickering but Joshua just leaves them to it. He was too occupied trying to figure out when exactly he had the time to meet his soulmate between this morning and almost running over a crying girl yesterday–

Oh.

“I know who my soulmate is!” Joshua cries out gleefully.

“Well I sure _hope_ so,” Jeonghan mutters sarcastically. Joshua’s too excited to respond to the jab.

“Let’s go meet her.”

“You know where she stays?” Seungcheol asks, a little incredulously.

“It’s a long story, I’ll tell you on the way.” Joshua’s already picking up his bike, waiting for either one of them to take a seat first. They’re going somewhere they’ve never been before, so whoever’s pillion is free game. “I met her yesterday, I think.”

“It’s a girl!!” Jeonghan has successfully clambered onto the back, sticking a tongue out at Seungcheol. “Is she pretty?”

“I guess? But she was crying yesterday, so I’m not sure.”

“You made her CRY?” Jeonghan sounds horrified now, and even Seungcheol looks at him judgementally.

“I did no such thing! Shut up!” Joshua peddles forth and doesn’t wait to see if Jeonghan manages to stay balanced or if Seungcheol is following after them. They’re both fine anyway.

It doesn’t take them too long to get to Nayoung’s house, even though Joshua has only been there once. He was meaning to check up on her anyway. His mother always reminded him to visit his friends who were sick, though he isn’t quite sure yet if Nayoung counts as a friend and knows for a fact that her wounds are probably already healing nicely.

Going up to knock on the front door, though, is another matter altogether.

“Are you scared?” Seungcheol murmurs beside him.

“Nervous?” Jeonghan adds with a jab.

(An aside: Joshua _will_ , one day, find better friends to hang out with.)

In any case, staying out there on the driveway with the two of them isn’t going to change things, so he steels all the nerve a nine-year-old boy could possibly possess, walks up the steps, and rings the bells.

It’s nerve-wrecking. Nayoung’s parents’ angry faces, no matter how fleeting, is still seared in his mind.

He wants to turn tail and run. He wants to get on his bike and _go, go go–_

The door opens. Nayoung is standing in front of him.

Above her head, hovers big, bright numbers: 12-30-1995.

December 30th 1995. His birthdate.

There’s a rush of feeling he doesn’t yet understand, and the grin comes easily. “Hello, Nayoung.”

She smiles tentatively back. “Hello, Joshua.”

Joshua didn’t notice before, but Nayoung is actually a little taller than him and that forces him to stand up straighter. He gestures absently minded to her knee, “You’ve got animal bandages on.”

Nayoung startles a little and then, surprisingly, narrows her eyes. “You know I’m older than you by a few weeks.”

It’s Joshua’s turn to narrow his eyes. “So what? It’s _only_ a few days.”

“I’m also taller than you.”

“I’ll grow!”

“But so will I!”

“So what! I bet I can run faster than you! And swim, and ride a bike, and–”

He notices Nayoung fall quiet again. There’s a terrible feeling in his gut that’s he’s said something upsetting. “What’s wrong?”

She mumbles something under her breath that he can’t hear, so he leans closer to her.

“I said I can’t swim!” she yells suddenly, effectively blowing his eardrums out. “OW!” he protests, but she’s on a spiel.

“I can’t ride a bike either, and every time I run too fast I fall because I’m clumsy and mom says it’s cause I’m too tall and nobody wants to be my friend because I’ll cry, and I don’t know what soulmates even _mean_ , mom and dad just say “you’ll know when you meet them” but I _don’t know_ and you’re here but _I still don’t know–_ ”

Joshua stops her by taking her hand. He just _knows_ his face is red.

Oh god, is this what Seungcheol feels like whenever Jeonghan calls them _soulmates?_ He thinks he gets it now. He can understand why adults do stupid things for that word called ‘love’.

“Do you wanna come hang out with us?” Joshua mumbles instead, watching the ground. “I– We could teach you? How to swim and ride a bike and all that.”

“My mom…”

“Don’t worry about her.” Joshua tugs her forward and he’s relieved when Nayoung follows. “We can go over to my house, and _my_ mom will tell yours that we’re hanging out. She’ll be fine.”

Another tug, another step out the door, until its swinging shut behind her.

Joshua’s pretty sure it's one of those auto-lock doors. Hopefully.

“After lunch, we’re gonna go to the creek behind Jeonghan’s house.” He points to said boy who somehow knew they were talking about him, and is waving a hand. “And maybe next time, you can join us at Seungcheol’s? He’s got this huge yard with a treehouse, and you can learn to climb trees with us or something?”

Joshua knows he’s rambling.

“And you can even ride on my bike the whole time! Until you learn. I’ll– Make sure you won’t fall. Somehow. I’ll do it.”

Nayoung is silent for a good minute.

“I’d like that,” she says finally.

Joshua’s grin returns in full bloom and Nayoung mirrors it back. They move to where the other two are waiting.

“ _Sooo?_ ” Jeonghan waggles his eyebrows without a hint of subtility.

“Nayoung is my permanent backseat rider until she learns how to ride her own bike,” Joshua declares.

Jeonghan falls to his knees dramatically, yelling _“NOOOOOOO!”_ and Seungcheol is right there soothing him while shooting betrayed glares at Joshua, and Nayoung looks on, both amused and confused by his friends.

Joshua might be a one-man-band and he might prefer racing towards the horizon all on his own, but he finds he doesn’t really mind sharing the experience if it's with these three people.

All in all, he’s pretty grateful for his bike.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this? Without remembering I wrote this. It was mostly done, and I'm pretty sure there was supposed to be much, _much_ more plot, and it could've even been inspired by another fic on this site, but I don't remember any of that right now, lmao, so I just decided to finish and post it. Hope you liked it!


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